Info From The Vine: Crowdfunding for Disaster Recovery

SignVine is crowdfunding for the Sign Industry that allows non-profit organizations to raise funds online to purchase a message sign. And now, to introduce the service, the 5% fee has been waived for the duration of 2014.

Crowdfunding promotes new ideas, new products and supports many causes. It also raises money for well-known causes such as regional disasters, here are a few examples that have made headlines:

Hurricane Sandy- using GoFundMe, $1.3 million collected, and additional support through Indiegogo and HelpersUnite. The Red Cross raised over $800,000 using Crowdrise to help defray the costs of support.

The Boston Marathon Bombings- Over $3.4 million using multiple crowdfunding platforms. 

The Emergency Relief for Oklahoma Tornado Victims- raised $46,000+ on HopeMob.

The goal of such crowdfunding efforts is to supplement traditional charitable giving, not replace them. Such efforts generates additional attention to the cause and allows people to participate directly in the solution.

There are many roles for crowdfunding in 2014. From equity crowdfunding to bootstrap a new business to traditional crowdfunding to create new product to disaster recovery, crowdfunding is a simple idea, whose time has come! 

- Mike Prongue
  Campaign Director for the Non Profit SignVine
  michael@signvine.org
  www.signvine.org